Q&A with Spain's Andres Iniesta

Diminutive midfielder Andres Iniesta will always be remembered for scoring two of the biggest goals in the history of FC Barcelona and Spain's national team: in the 2009 Champions league and 2010 World Cup. SI.com's Richard Deitsch and María Poveda Lloret recently caught up with him:

SI.com: What is your favorite story of someone telling you what winning the World Cup meant to them?

Andres Iniesta's exploits
for Spain were commemorated
by the unveiling of a wax figure

Iniesta: I've been told a lot of stories, and none of them have left me indifferent. Some of the stories were funny, others affectionate, and there were even amazing ones. There are people that got hurt celebrating the goal because others threw chairs into the air in the pubs, or climbed to the pub's bar. There are others that came to me explaining that they have dreamed about me scoring a goal the night before of the final game. There have been a lot of sincere and true stories. But if I have to pick up one among all these stories this would be the story of a family that got back together to celebrate Spain's victory at the World Cup. It was a divided family that made it up to celebrate the victory.

SI.com: What is your reaction when people say this Barcelona squad is among the finest to ever play soccer. Is that a fair statement?

Iniesta: Hearing this from people from the world of soccer is a big praise ("halago" in Spanish) to us. I think this should motivate us. And we should use it to try to better ourselves and keep people saying these nice things about us in the future. This team can keep on winning titles. Every year winning titles becomes a more difficult task and, because of that, winning must be a challenge that we have to overcome year after year. Only time will be able to confirm if we did it or not.

SI.com: Barcelona's dominance of possession is the identity of the club. Xavi said, "Combine, pass, play. That's football for me." Do you agree with him? Explain why?

Iniesta: I totally agree. This is what we have learned since we were children and started to play in "la cantera" (cantera means the club's youth team). So for us, this is soccer, the soccer we like and the soccer in which we believe and lead us to victory. We have grown up with a way of playing soccer and, fortunately, we keep it, we haven't lost it and we can accomplish it as well in the "first team" That's Barça's main victory.

SI.com: What do you enjoy most about playing on this current Barcelona team?

Iniesta: I enjoy small things: trainings, colleagues, other people from the "vestuario"( locker room). To me, it's not just the game itself; it is daily life what is most important.

SI.com: How many times have you re-watched the World Cup final against Holland? How does it make you feel when you see it again?

Iniesta: Well, I cannot tell you a number. Actually, I haven't watched the whole game many times. But what it is true is that I have revisited some plays or parts of the game many times. When I'm revisiting the game, a million of feelings, all of them wonderful, come to me. Winning was something awesome, incredible, beautiful, and very important for all of us.

SI.com: You have always been honest about how you're not fond of talking in public. How have you dealt with the increased demands on you to be more public since winning the World Cup?

Iniesta: Yes, that is true. I have always admitted that I prefer playing soccer than speaking in public, but doing this doesn't mean a problem for me. I mean, I know that it is a part of my job. What I do when speaking in public is trying to do it as best as possible and trying to make everybody comfortable with my words. Sometimes getting this is very difficult, but I try my best.

SI.com: Why did you decide to invest in the wine business?

Iniesta: This is a family business. My family has owned some vineyards for years and we used to pick personally these fruits (grapes). This is something very typical and characteristic from the region of Spain where I am from (region:Castilla-La Mancha. His town is called Fuentealbilla). Now, we've got the opportunity to make a winery to elaborate our own wine. It's true that making wine is a business, but I see it as a business to enjoy. The world of wine is very interesting. There are a lot of things that you don't know, and you get surprised when you get to know them. I can say that I'm getting to love the world of wine and am thankful to my family that I got in on it. I wish people could enjoy my wine when they taste it. I have put huge work on this project and I have to thank all the people that are helping me on it.

SI.com: Which players do you most enjoy watching on television when you are not playing and why?

Iniesta: I like to watch soccer, no matter what teams or players are in the field. I think I can learn from everybody, regardless what their names are. In the past, I had my idols but today I enjoy learning from all the soccer I watch.

SI.com: How often have you traveled to America? Do you have a favorite place in the States?

Iniesta: I rarely travel to America, only with the team to play some preseason game ("pretemporada" in Spanish) or for some special occasion.

Barcelona are ready to go to £40 million for Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas.

Barcelona are ready to go to £40 million for Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas.

The Daily Star says Champions League winners Barcelona have been trying to land Arsenal skipper Cesc Fabregas for two years but Gunners boss Arsene Wenger has repeatedly made it clear he has no desire to sell his captain.

But the Spanish champs just refuse to go away and have agreed to up their bid by £10m in an attempt to prise him from Arsenal’s grasp.

A source close to Barca said last night: “They still have not spoken formally to Arsenal about him.

“They had wanted to do it while they were in London for the Champions League Final but it never happened. But they will not give up.”

As well as the improved cash offer for Fabregas, Barca would also allow Arsenal to choose one of their young players as part of any deal.

SOURCE: Tribalfootball

Barcelona will of course push to sign Cesc Fabregas this summer but as previously there is no compunction for Arsenal to sell so a lot depends on the Gunners captain and whether he pushes for an Emirates Stadium exit and one wonders if it makes sense for the Spanish international to leave for the Nou Camp when he would surely just end up warming the bench until Xavi calls it day, which appears to be no day soon.

This source doesn’t state which Barcelona players would be on offer to the North London club as part of the deal but the likes of Bojan, Thiago Alcantara, Nolito and Jonathan dos Santos and Ibrahim Afellay have been linked with moves to Arsenal in the past.

Wenger has his work cut out keeping Arsenal’s top players at the club with Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy both stalling on signing new contracts so he will surely do all he can to prevent his skipper leaving this summer. Pep Guardiola has stated his admiration for Fabregas but the Catalan club is apparently on a slightly uneasy financial footing and can therefore not make huge offers, hence the need to add players into the deal.

Given that Fabregas has spent eight years at Arsenal, mounting up over 300 appearances, but has managed to secure one solitary FA Cup success in the process, so one can understand if Cesc decided to leave the club but a move to Barcelona may end up being a mistake given that first team football may well be a difficulty.

Barca: Afellay is good, says Xavi

FC Barcelona is a team from another planet but it’s also a club like any other club. Whenever a new player enters the practice, he will be tested. Immediately. Let’s see if this lad can play ball. You never know. The Barca players have seen it before. Good players who ended up hiding, afraid to get the ball. Even if they were signed on for millions of euros.

Ibrahim Afellay came in the winter break. A no-name player, in Spain. A bit unloved even. Except for football fanatic Xavi Hernandez who follows every competition and knows every player. There were the first greetings and polite conversation and then the warm up. After the warm up came the rondo. The eternal, trusted rondo. The gameplay that Barca perfected to the highest form of perfection.

Afellay, 25 years old, saw his first ball coming towards him. Low, as it is supposed to be, and very hard. You have to actually watch a practice session live to be able to see how fierce the passing is. We used to call it passing the ball, but at Barca it’s as if every player fires the ball with maximum strength, straight into the feet of a team mate. Or sometimes a tad to the left or right, to direct a team mate into a certain direction.

Xavi: “It was clear from the start, with Ibi. He knows what he’s doing. He didn’t just take the ball and controlled it, he was immediately looking for the best next pass. And never to the player closest, but to the player most deep. Good genes, this lad.”

Afellay grins but quickly adds: “I wasn’t able to participate that well, mind you. We did rondo’s at PSV but never this fierce and sharp. It took some adjustments. Even if I had only trained with this group I would have been grateful. Simply training with these guys make me a better player.”

But, there is a second test in the tightknit squad of Barcelona. It’s almost a cult with Pep as their spiritual leader. Xavi: “A player at Barca also needs to be a good man. That’s how we are raised in our youth development system. Respect is important. No one is more or less than another. Not in attitude. Maybe in football, yes, but not off the pitch.” And they did have to suffer a couple like that at Barca. Some players had severe issues with being one of the team. Thierry Henry was the superstar at Arsenal. He didn’t think it was easy to adjust. Or Zlatan, prima donna at Inter, couldn’t cope with it at all and left after one season.

But Afellay was ok. They could see it in his eyes. A player who came to develop, to grow. A nice bloke. Ali Afellay, Ibi’s older brother, watched his brother become part of Barcelona. “It’s unbelievable how normal the Barca stars are. They’re all nice guys.”

Ibi has had quite a first half year in Spain. Four clasicos against Real, the title and now the CL finals against Man United. He is on the journey, in the plane, the hotel, the dressing room, the bench and the pitch. Ibi was part of 27 games already, of which five in the Champions League. And Ibi scored two goals.

“Cool eh? First season at Barca and immediately a CL finals. I’m preparing like I normally do. I won’t do anything different, although I do realise only so many Dutch players get to this level. I knew I wouldn’t start but I did hope for some playing time.
I know a lot of people criticised my move to Spain but I’m happy. I came onto the pitch in the game against Real and had the assist on Messi…. That tells me enough.

Barcelona Are the Best Football Team in the World

Barcelona's victory over Manchester United in Saturday's Champions League Final proved one thing—they are the best football team in the world.

There is currently no national or club team better than La Blaugrana. They have been the most attractive team on the planet and deserve to be called the world's best team.

Under Guardiola, Barcelona have won two Champions League titles and become the gold standard for possession-based football. With world-class talent all over the field, Barca have emerged as the top footballing team of 2011.

The Catalan side will undoubtedly enter next season as the team to beat.

Barcelona have played the best football, beaten their strongest European competition in Madrid and United and have emerged Champions League winners once again.

Without doubt, at this moment in time, Barcelona are the best football team in the world

Champions League Final 2011: 5 Winners and Losers From Barcelona's 3-1 Victory

Was there any doubt that Barcelona wouldn't provide a spectacle in the UEFA Champions League final? Nonetheless, it was a feel good moment to see the Barcelona players allow Éric Abidal to lift the trophy. 

When it comes to a final, there'll always be a winner and a loser, and this post will look at the five winners and losers from Barcelona's 3-1 victory against Manchester United.
Winner: Barcelona’s Beautiful Football

Pep Guardiola was 11 years old when he watched Telê Santana’s Brazil arrive in Spain, and define Joga Bonito (the beautiful game) during the 1982 FIFA World Cup—though Santana’s Brazil left Spain empty handed.

Almost three decades later, Guardiola’s Barcelona not only demonstrated the beautiful game to millions of people, but won their second UEFA Champions League in three seasons.  

Loser: Sir Alex Ferguson's Calculated Gamble

In El Clásico I, there were some eyebrows raised when José Mourinho started Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Mesut Özil—three players devoid of any defensive ability. Real Madrid endured a humiliating 5-0 thrashing, which was soured by a senseless Sergio Ramos red card.

How did Mourinho react? He reverted back to his blueprint of a contemporary version of catenaccio, where his team would park the plane in front of their goals, adopted a zonal approach to defending, flooded the midfield in order to force Xavi deep and were very physical especially to Lionel Messi.

With the use of those seemingly agricultural and blue collar tactics, in El Clásico II, III and IV, Mourinho's Real Madrid won one, drew two, lost one and conceded four goals.

Utilising anti-football isn’t a revolutionary tactic, it’s one born out of pragmatism by conceding the other team is far superior football team, but your team may be the tactically more astute, defensively more organised and physically more imposing.

Chelsea, Rubin Kazan and Real Madrid have had varying degrees of success against Barcelona by playing anti-football, so one wonders why Ferguson decided not to play anti-football.

Perhaps starting Chicharito, Ferguson hoped the Mexican would get the better of the slow centre back pairing of Javier Mascherano and Gerard Piqué.

Though, playing Chicharito came to no avail, as he spent large portions of the game chasing Barcelona shadows.

It would have been more tactically shrewd to have played an extra central midfielder rather than start Chicharito; then again, it’s always easier to judge in hindsight.

Winner: Fair Play Is What We Want to See

In the most important game of the footballing season, both teams played fairly—especially important since Barcelona have a history of unfair play—and certainly were model professionals tonight.

Though to play devil’s advocate, aside from Michael Carrick’s lunge on Andrés Iniesta, Manchester United were not physical to the degree of Chelsea and Real Madrid.

Plus, Barcelona were always controlling the game and didn't need to start diving about, with the aim of getting Manchester United players sent off to swing the balance towards their side.

Loser: O Dimitar, Dimitar, Where Art Thou, Berbatov ?

Talk about insult to injury—not only did Dimitar Berbatov fail to make the starting 11, he didn’t even make the bench.

You’d think Sir Alex Ferguson would be able to reserve a spot for a forward who has scored 21 goals this season, but apparently not.

Berbatov’s replacement on the bench, Michael Owen, didn’t even make a cameo.

Winner: Lionel Messi's Brilliance

Fifty-three goals and 24 assists in 55 games explains itself.

What a time for Lionel Messi to score his first goal on English soil!

Messi was always in a position to receive the ball. Time after time, he sumptuously glided past Manchester United players with such consummate ease that the late Garrincha would be applauding in approval.

Why didn’t Sir Alex Ferguson just instruct a player to man mark Messi? Why didn’t he just have a player within the vicinity of Messi? Why did he let Messi have such a free role? Didn’t he watch Pepe shut down Messi?

The notion that one player can be discussed about at such length, as to how to stop him influencing the game, is testament to how great of a footballer Messi is.

Loser: Cristiano Ronaldo—No Longer Numero Uno

Fifty-three goals and 16 assists in 54 games explains itself.

If there was one moral victory that Cristiano Ronaldo would have been claiming, it was being Europe’s top scorer.

Now he has to share that accolade with Lionel Messi, who not only had eight more assists, but won the UEFA Champions League. 

Then again, perhaps it's fitting that both players ended up scoring the exact same goals this season.

Winner: Xavi the Orchestrator

There used to be a Brazilian who played for Reggina called Mozart, and it would have been perfect if Xavi's name was Mozart, because he is an artist when it comes to passing.  

Tonight, Xavi was industrious as ever, given not only was he a safe passing outlet, but his vision allowed him to pierce through opposing defences, as was the case with Pedro’s goal. Bravo!

Loser: Ryan Giggs—a Week to Forget

It hasn't been a good week for Ryan Giggs, has it?

Having been named as the footballer who not only took out a £50,000 super injunction, but he did so because he cheated on his wife, to dealing with the repercussions at home plus the media scrutiny, to watching Barcelona pass their way to a UEFA Champions League title.

If there’s any consolation for Giggs, he provided an assist for Wayne Rooney’s goal.

Winner: Referee Viktor Kassai's Solid Performance

The 35-year-old referee, Viktor Kassai, became the youngest ever referee to officiate in a UEFA Champions League final since 39-year-old Pierluigi Collina.

That, itself, says something, because referee Kassai was solid tonight. He controlled the game, he didn’t issue any pointless yellow cards, let play go on and didn’t become a negative talking point.




Loser: Antonio Valencia's Poor Performance

Antonio Valencia profited from referee Viktor Kassai’s leniency, but aside from his persistent fouling, tonight he was just not a nonfactor.

Éric Abidal proved that even two or so months after removing a tumour from his liver, that he can still play football at the highest level. Abidal was too crafty for Valencia tonight